Big Brother Croatia vs. Human Dignity?

Ljubica Matijević-Vrsaljko (Ljubica Matijevic-Vrsaljko), Children's Rights Solicitor of Croatia, has filed official complaint to Croatian Electronic Media Council claiming that "Big Brother reality show is in breech of Electronic Media Act".

According to Matijević-Vrsaljko, Big Brother contains material that "insults human dignity" and "promotes consumption of alcohol and tobacco, especially among children and youth". The show is "harmful" because of nudity and the fact that the nudity itself is used to promote the show.

Even, with nudity edited out, the concept of the show insults "human dignity" with its "voyeuristic approach to other people's lives". Complaint also claims that the show "harms psycho-physiological development of children and youth".

While it is commendable to see Ms. Matijević-Vrsaljko and her office taking such great interest in the well-being of Croatian youth, it is somewhat odd that the Croatian public only now found that such institution actually exists. Especially after the same institution remained so silent during entire run of Po ure torture and Trikvartača (Trikvartaca).

Then again, Po ure torture and Trikvartača were aired on state-run television and financed by the very same taxpayers who finance Ms. Matijević-Vrsaljko and her institution.

It is even more comforting to know that at least one Croatian state official have something in common with certain Bahrain clerics.